Spark indicator and amplifier



Aug. 28, 1923.

3,466,232 B. JoNEs ET AL SPARK INDICATOR AND AMPLIFIER Filed March 12.1920 Y1/Mmes, BASSETT 10A/] and :A4/YES 7THOLMES.

ratei-nea Aug. 28, 1923.

UNITED STATES BASSETT JONES, F MAAR, AND JAMES T. HOLMES, 0F BOGOTA, NEWJERSEY.

SPARK INDICATOB AND AMPLIFIER.

Application led March 12, 1920. Serial No. 365,267.

T 0 all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that we, BAssE'rr JONES and JAMrs T. HOLMES, citizens of theUnited States, and residents of the villa e of Mahwah, county of BergenState of ew Jersey, and town of Bogota, ergen County, State of NewJersey, respectively, have jointly invented certain new and usefulmprovements in Spark Indicators and Amplifiers, l@ of which thefollowing is a description Our invention relates to spark producing a'paratus. l

f t is well known that the larger the eective current through a sparkgap, such as a spark lug of an internal combustion engine, t 'e hotteror fatter the-spark and the better the results obtained from the engineWe have found that in l:all of the wiring arrangements between the timerand the spark plugs, a certain amount of inductanee is present which, inmany conditions, tends to reduce the effective current and hence' thetemperature of the spark. Moreover, it is desirable that the person in'charge of the apparatus be able to readiiy determine conditione in thebranch circuits leading from. the timen.

lt is the principal object of our` invention to provide a device whichshall serve as an indicator of conditions in the circuit in which it isconnected and which shall also serve to increase the edective current insuch circuit.

The novel features of our invention are pointed out with vparticularityin the appended claims. The invention itself, however, with furtherobjects and advantages, will best be understood from a perusal of the"10 following description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a. perspective of the portion of anautomobile having our invention applicr thereto, the ignition system ofthe antoniobile engine being indicated diagrammaticfally in this figure;

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section through a device embodying ourinvention of the kind appearing on the dash-board of the auto- 5@ mobilein Fig. 1, and taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 7 g

Fig. 3 is a. section on the line 3 3 o Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a. perspective view of one of the condenser plates in thedevice appearing plan.

l the in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 andillustrating the arrangement of the sparkpoints thereon;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the insulating blocks usedbetween the plates in the device shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a horizontal section taken on the line 6-6 'of Fig. l7;

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of the device appearing in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view of a modiication embodyin our invention,taken on the line 8--8 of Fig. 9. and

.Fig 9 is a sectional vieW of the device 'shown in Fig. 8, Fig. 9 beingtaken 'at right angles to Fig. 8. 70

eferring to the drawing more in detail, 1 is the dash-board of anautomobile on which is fixed a box 2, containing a plurality of alignedark-indicating and amplifyi devices, .sue as 3, therebeing as man o theindividual devices 3 as they are spar plugs, such as e, for the internalcombustion engine of the automobile. A high tension magneto or othersource of high tension current 1s indicated at 5, the circuit of themagneto 5 being grounded at 6 and connected to the moving arm 7 of theusual timer or distrib uter, which has fixed contacts, such as 8.Leading from the xed contactfs, 8, to the spark plugs, 4, are branchcircuits, such as 9, in each of which is connected any one of thedevices, 3, according to our invention. Each of the devices 3 comprisestwo or more condenser plates, such as 10,` eaclil two adjacent plates 10being separated by 90 insulating plates or disks, such as 11, ofsuitable dielectric material, the plates 10 and 11 being substantiallythe same dimensions in The plates 11 are cut away at points in theiredges to orm recesses,v such as 12, and we iprovide tungsten sparkpoints 13, preferab y silver soldered to the plates 10, cinte 13pro'ecting into the recesses 12 in e plates 11, ut the points onadjacent plates being se arated, as indicated at 14, to provide s ar rga s between the plates of the device. gVe pre er that the plates 10 and11. be of cylindrical form so that when one or more sets of plates areassembled in one device, such as 3, they may be readily en- 'closed in atransparent insulating envelope,

such as 15, preferably of glass. The case l or envelope 15 is preferablymade open at each end 'and in assembling the ends of the cases areclosed by caps, such as 16, of inlos v sulating material.

Suitable connections, such as l?, are provided that extend throughapertures in the end caps 16 to enable the devices 3 to be connectedinto any circuit, such as 9, in which it may be desired to use them. Thespark gaps 14. are readily visible through the casing 15 so that anyonecan tell if the current 1n the circuit in which the device is used isof normal stren h. The observation of the spark gaps is acilitated byplacing them adjacent to the casing 15, as shown in' Fig. 2. Y'

`We prefer to enclose a plurality of devices, such as 3, Within a box orcasing, such as 2, such box being provided with windows, such as 18,through which the action at the spark gaps 14 may be observed. y

In Figs. 8 and 9, we have illustrated a device 3 according to ourinvention in which the condenser plates 10 instead of being separated bydisks or solid dielectric, as in the form shown in lFig. 2, arespaced attheir edges by rings, such as 19, of transparent insulating material,such as glass, the plates 10 having spark points, such as 18, securedthereto in the same manner as in the case of the plates l0 and points13. However, the majority of the portions of the surfaces of adjacentplates 10 being separated only by air, as a dielectric, spark points,such as 13', may be placed at any point on the surface of the plates l0and in Figs. 8 and 9 they are shown as being placed at the centers ofthese plates.

ln use, the individual indicators, such as 3 or 3', may be numberedaccording to the numbers of the cylinders of the engine or other circuitin which the device is used, and the sparking in the amplifiers orindicators will indicate the order in which the spark plugs in thecylinders are Working.

Should a cylinder begin to miss it will be observed at once that thesparking in the indicator for this cylinder has ceased and the driverwill know at once which cylinder is missing. He can also observe thesequence in which it misses and this will tell him something of thereason for the missing and he will be able to go at once to the properplug for investigation. rlhis will be a particular advantage becausefrequently a cylinder will miss when the car is in motion and the enginedoing Work, but will cease to miss when the car has been stopped for thepurpose of examining the spark plugs.

Should an open circuit occur in any of the Wiring or leads it will beindicated at once by the cessation of the sparking in the indicator. lfythe open circuit is in the main leads to the timer, the sparking wouldcease in all of the indicators.

Should a short-circuit occur in any of the leads it will be indicated atonce by the fattening up of the spark in the indicator, for then theentire energy will be consumed in the indicator.

lt will be understood that while we have illustrated and specificallydescribed our invention as being used in the ignition circuit of aninternal combustion engine, that our invention is not limited to suchuse.

Having thus described our invention, what We claim is;

1. A combined spark intensifier and 1nw dicator comprising incombination a coniid..

denser having plates and a solid dielectric between adjacent platesthereof, and visible spark points fixed to said adjacent plates andlying in the spacedeined by extensions of the surfacesl of said withsaid adjacent plates.

2. A combined spark indicator and intensifier comprising in combinationa condenser having plates andV a solid dielectric between adjacentplates thereof, said dielectric being cut away near the edges of saidplates, and spark points xed to said plates lying in the space wheresaid-dielectric is cut away.

BASSE'llT JONES. JAMES T. HOLMES.

dielectric in contact,l

